Pages

Friday, July 26, 2013

Waratah: The S.S. Waratah and Her Commander

An account of a new
Australian steamer and her first passage.

(By A.G.H.)

S.S. Waratah at Adelaide

The idea of naming the
steamships of the Blue Anchor line with names peculiar to Australia
originated with the pioneer captain of that line, and although in the very
earliest of the vessels the idea was not adopted, yet it soon became apparent
to the owners that the suggestion was a wise and graceful one. We have now a
list of steamers trading between England and the antipodes whose
names, when mentioned, immediately remind the hearer of the different States in
the great Australian continent. The latest addition to Messrs. Lund’s Blue
Anchor line has been named after the gorgeous waratah, of New South Wales, a magnificent scarlet
blossom indigenous to that State.

As I sit on the promenade
deck of the Waratah in the great dividing line between the two hemispheres, on
this my seventeenth passage between England
and Australia,
the reality is borne in upon the mind of the advantage of size in the matter of
transit through the ocean. Here we are steaming along in the large new Blue
Anchor liner, with a head wind, and yet practically little or no motion is
experienced. The reason of the steadiness is not only due to the 10, 000 tons
burthen of the Waratah, but also to her construction. When I first saw the new
steamer at Tilbury, the idea was that she would prove a great roller, owing to
the height of her many decks above the water-level. The lowest of these, for
first-class passengers, is one deck higher than the spar deck on the P. &
O. steamers, and the promenade deck, which also has extensive cabin
accommodation, is he same height as the boat deck on most of the ocean
steamers. The Waratah’s boat deck towers above these, and the bridge looks
unusually high. The funnel seems an enormous size round, but we are told that
it is not so large in diameter as the Geelong’s,
and considerably lower, it being constructed in a modern and improved style
that does not require such great size. The apparent top-heaviness of the
Waratah appears to have no effect on the easy passage of the steamer through
the water, as it is counteracted by her breadth of beam. Having
travelled three times in the Geelong one naturally compares the two steamers,
and the conclusion arrived at is that the lofty build of the Waratah does not
cause any access of motion, but that this is if anything less in her than in
the Geelong.

With regard to the interior
plan of Messrs. W. Lund & Son’s new liner it differs in many respects from
the older vessel, and in some of these differences the advantage is with the
older steamer – at least in the opinion of the writer. The first-class cabins
are not quite so large as those of the Geelong,
and I understand that the smaller steamers of the Blue Anchor line have even
larger rooms than this last named steamer. Another difference in the plan of
the Waratah is that no single cabin in the first-class has a porthole close to
the water, owing to the fact that a gangway runs all round outside the cabins.
This last mentioned difference causes less fresh air from the sea to come
directly into them. In other respects the Waratah keeps up the record of the
Blue Anchor line, and this fact is more noticeable as so many old faces are to
be seen on board the new steamer.

The aged quartermaster, who
boasts of his 79 summers, but who looks so hale and fit that it is difficult to
believe that he has lived so long, is one of them. Then there is the purser,
whose face is so familiar to those who have travelled in the Geelong, and who is most obliging to all.

It
has been my privilege to travel four times across the ocean with the commander
of the Waratah, and on each occasion I have been more struck than before with
his unique personality, and with the extreme suitableness of that personality
for the position that he is called upon to occupy. Simple and unpretentious in
manner, he yet has a dignity about him that would at once forbid a liberty, and
all who serve under him do so with the utmost respect, and, in most cases, with
great love and veneration. Who that has heard Captain Ilbery read the Church of
England service, which he does every Sunday morning when there is no clergyman
among the passengers, will forget the impressive manner in which the service is
conducted, and the observant listener will not fail to notice that only one who
enters into and participates in the petitions could present them in the tone of
genuine devotion in which they are uttered.